State helicopter startles Pontiac prison guards

Tuesday

Mar 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2008 at 6:10 PM

An unmarked state helicopter might have come perilously close to being fired upon when it landed in a fenced-in area just outside the Pontiac Correctional Center last week, the prison guards’ union says.

Doug Finke

An unmarked state helicopter might have come perilously close to being fired upon when it landed in a fenced-in area just outside the Pontiac Correctional Center last week, the prison guards’ union says.

When an inmate on a nearby work detail began walking toward the helicopter, an officer in a guard tower saw the inmate and, thinking an escape might be in progress, drew his weapon, a union spokesman said Tuesday.

“The incident showed incompetence, showed negligence and it created a very dangerous situation that everybody involved is lucky didn’t end in tragedy,” said Anders Lindall of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The union said guards weren't notified that the helicopter was coming. The helicopter, operated by the Department of Transportation, does not have markings that it is a state-owned aircraft.

Buddy Maupin, an AFSCME regional director, wrote Department of Corrections Director Roger Walker last week, complaining that prison staff members were not alerted that the helicopter was on its way. The incident could have ended in tragedy because officers are authorized to use deadly force if they suspect an aircraft is being used as part of an escape, Maupin said in the letter.

“The occupants of that helicopter are lucky to be alive,” Maupin wrote. “The tower officer would have been fully within his authority to open fire on the incoming unauthorized aircraft…”

“If those correctional officers and staff on the grounds were not aware, that is something we are looking into,” Schnapp said.

The incident happened Thursday morning, when three Corrections officials and two representatives from Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office flew from Springfield to visit prisons in Pontiac, Ina and Robinson before returning to Springfield.

The entourage included Shelith Hansbro, chief of community outreach at DOC, Jim Reinhart, Corrections’ chief of staff and Rick Bard, the department’s chief of operations. Victor Roberson, deputy chief of intergovernmental affairs for Blagojevich, and Jessica Pickens, Blagojevich’s liaison to the Illinois House, were also on the helicopter.

Schnapp would say only that the fly-around was part of normal site visits by Corrections staff. Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the governor’s representatives were along to “gain first-hand knowledge of educational programs” at the prisons.

According to Maupin’s account, the helicopter arrived at the Pontiac Correctional Center shortly before 9:30 a.m.

“No notice of approval of any aircraft to breach the perimeter had been shared with any operations staff at Pontiac,” he said.

The helicopter landed in a gravel parking lot used by employees, a common practice because there is no helipad at the prison. Several inmates were on a work detail in the lot, “one of whom was walking toward the helicopter, less than 100 feet from the landing craft,” Maupin said.

“The tower officer did in fact draw his weapon on the outside work detail inmate in the parking lot who was walking towards the helicopter,” Maupin wrote in his letter.

“That inmate –- totally innocent of any misconduct -– is also lucky to be alive, as it would have been a reasonable conclusion of the tower officer that the inmate was involved in an escape and that deadly force would have been an appropriate response.”

Maupin asked Walker to take steps to ensure a similar incident doesn’t happen again. Maupin said Tuesday he hasn’t received a response to his letter.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527

The Pontiac Correctional Center, which has both maximum- and medium-security areas, holds an average of 1,660 inmates. It also is the primary protective custody unit in the Illinois prison system.

Opened in 1871, the prison is the eighth-oldest correctional facility in the U.S.

The city of Pontiac, population about 12,000, is 100 miles north of Springfield on Interstate 55.